Mooncaron and Piglet Macarons (new imprinting technique!)

 When I first tried to make mooncarons back in 2017, I tried all sorts of ways to replicate the imprints on traditional mooncakes but none of them worked. "Mooncaron" was a name I came up with in 2017 to describe my macarons made to look at taste like traditional baked mooncakes that are eaten and sold around Mid-Autumn Festival season. I resorted to laboriously piping the designs by freehand from then till now because it is the only foolproof method. But when I saw the imprinting technique shared by Hannah (@mcfonsa_macaron) on Instagram, I knew I had to try it on mooncarons. I finally managed to come up with something that is somewhat mooncake-ish by imprinting the design!

I am including the cutesie version of piglet mooncakes in macaron form this year too!

I used textured parchment sheets from Intricut Edibles. Although they have geometric designs that are similar to mooncake mold imprints, it is faster and easier (I shall explain why later) to pipe those designs using macaron batter. Instead, I chose floral designs with lots of intricate curved lines, which are more challenging to pipe consistently and quickly by freehand.

While the imprinting technique works, it is not without challenges and drawbacks:

1. Embossed designs on the parchment are a lot shallower than mooncake molds. As a result, the imprints do not appear to pop out as much as piped designs.

2. Macaron batter is meringue based so it is impossible to avoid all air bubbles under the parchment sheet. In order to fix the air bubbles, the holes have to be filled post-baking, leading to possibly more time for the whole process. Whatever time you saved from not having to pipe the designs may be lost through the longer baking time required for the first round of baking and extra time needed to patch the holes, rest and bake the second time.  Having said that, if you wanted complex floral designs, it is definitely faster to use the imprinting method, whereas if you wanted geometric designs with straight lines, it is faster to pipe them.

You may compare the set of imprinted mooncarons with my usual piped ones.

Piped designs appear to pop up more, just like actual mooncakes.

I have put together a reel to show you how to use the textured parchment sheets to make it work for you. It definitely needs some patience but it is a lot easier for those who struggle with piping intricate designs! 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwFedOaAu13/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Let me share part of the caption of the reel in this blog post for easy reference.

DON'Ts

❌ Improper placement of parchment resulting in huge air pockets

❌ Underbaking resulting in parchment stuck or patchy-looking tops 

❌ Applying "egg wash" paint without following the contours of the designs resulting in indistinct appearance of patterns

DOs

✅ When placing parchment on top of piped batter, start from one edge & slowly work across to the opposite edge as shown in reel

✅ Bake a few minutes more than usual as batter covered with parchment takes longer to bake

✅ Outline designs with egg wash paint & use lighter coloured paint for raised portions to let the designs stand out to compensate for shallow embossed designs on parchment

You may be concerned that the shells are overbaked due to longer baking time & double-baking to eliminate holes & to add on the rim. This can be fixed by brushing the base of shells with cream or milk before filling but in my case, the filling (lotus paste based) has enough water content to soften the shells so it's not necessary.

You may see this reel for how I prepare the lotus seed puree and lotus seed paste from scratch:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuVTHf6gSpi/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

My mooncaron class with the piglet macarons this year is also up for registration, with both online and studio class options. The online class has been up before this year but we will update the class material with the new filling-- lotus paste instead of the previous mung bean paste, and also include the piglet template and video of piping and decorating it. All studio participants will have access to online class material at no extra charge.

Please click on this link for the studio class and this link for the online class. 

with love,

Phay Shing